As cards to be used in financial institutions and other facilities for the purpose of realization of cashless service and personal authentication, conventionally there is a magnetic card in which a magnetic stripe is formed on a plastic substrate surface, as well as an IC card in which an integrated-circuit chip is embedded in a plastic substrate. Then, recording and reproducing magnetic data to/from the magnetic card, and sending and receiving electronic data to/from the IC card is carried out by using a card reader.
The card reader reads magnetic data saved in the magnetic card and writes new magnetic data into the magnetic card through making the magnetic head come into contact with, and slide on the magnetic stripe on the magnetic card surface. Also, the card reader reads electronic data saved in the IC card and writes new electronic data into the IC card through making its IC contact come into contact with the metal terminal (IC terminal) on the IC card surface.
In recent years, there appeared banking cards and credit cards for which their card design had been researched. As an example of those cards, there is a plastic card including a transparent part. Conventionally, there has been a card in which only a specified area according to the standard specifications is transparent (Hereinafter, such a card is called “a standardized transparent card”). In these years, however, occasionally there are also seen some cards in which an area not defined specifically according to the standard specifications is transparent (Hereinafter, such a card is called “a non-standardized transparent card”). Then, in the case of such a non-standardized transparent card, a conventional card reader cannot carry out recording and reproducing data saved in the card so that observed are an increasing number of cases in which the card reader becomes unable to operate and cannot handle the card normally.
In the case of a conventional card reader, an optical sensor is used for detecting a card position in a card path, in order that the sensitivity of the sensor is not influenced by any of the surrounding magnetic environment, environmental temperature, and humidity. Therefore, when such a non-standardized transparent card described above is inserted and transferred in the card reader, a light beam passes through the transparent area so that it is difficult for the card position detecting sensor of an optical type to detect a card position. Due to the reason, a CPU may have a chance of missing the card position (As a result, the card reader may become unable to operate normally). To prevent such a situation from coming up; in the case of any card about which it is doubtful whether or not the card can be handled normally (such as a non-standardized transparent card), it is judged before taking the card into the card reader that the card is an abnormal one to/from which data cannot be recorded and reproduced. Then, a measure is taken to minimize the operation interruption time through an ejecting operation (such as ejecting the card promptly to external) before becoming unable to operate normally.
On the other hand, a technology for recognizing a transparent card appropriately by devising a new means on the card has also appeared (Refer to Patent Document 1). In the case of a transparent card disclosed in Patent Document 1, special ink is applied between a front-side coat and a rear-side coat of the card to overcome a problem that a financial automated teller machine (ATM) cannot read data of the transparent card.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 2004-145
However, when a non-standardized transparent card that a card reader cannot handle is inserted into the card reader and any operation (such as recording and reproducing magnetic/electronic data and/or sending and receiving electronic data) is not carried out at all, it becomes a problem that the card reader cannot flexibly deal with diversification of customer needs.
More specifically to describe; as the card market expands, customer needs increase in such a way that card operations should be carried out as much as possible (For example, only a magnetic data reading operation is enabled, while an electronic data reading operation cannot be carried out) even when a non-standardized transparent card as described above is inserted. If a card reader nevertheless cannot accept non-standardized transparent cards at all unconditionally, the card reader is considered to be unable to flexibly deal with diversification of customer needs.
Meanwhile, devising a new means at the card side is conceivable as disclosed in Patent Document 1 mentioned above. However, from the viewpoint of costs, it is unpractical to apply special ink onto all transparent cards already distributed in the market. In the end, it is preferable that the problem is dealt with at the card reader side.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a card reader that can meet the customer needs to a certain extent even when a non-standardized transparent card is inserted, while considering a background of card design that spreads in a wide variety these years.